HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Anamorphosis is a distorted projection requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film special effects. The word is derived from the Greek prefix ''ana-'', meaning "back" or "again", and the word ''morphe'', meaning "shape" or "form". Extreme anamorphosis has been used by artists to disguise
caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
s,
erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...
and
scatological In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of feces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases s ...
scenes, and other furtive images from a casual spectator, while revealing an undistorted image to the knowledgeable viewer.


Types of projection

There are two main types of anamorphosis: ''perspective'' (oblique) and ''mirror'' (
catoptric Catoptrics (from grc-gre, κατοπτρικός ''katoptrikós'', "specular", from grc-gre, κάτοπτρον ''katoptron'' "mirror") deals with the phenomena of reflected light and image-forming optical systems using mirrors. A catoptric s ...
). More complex anamorphoses can be devised using distorted lenses, mirrors, or other optical transformations. An oblique anamorphism forms an
affine transformation In Euclidean geometry, an affine transformation or affinity (from the Latin, ''affinis'', "connected with") is a geometric transformation that preserves lines and parallelism, but not necessarily Euclidean distances and angles. More generally, ...
of the subject. Early examples of perspectival anamorphosis date to the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
of the fifteenth century and largely relate to religious themes. With mirror anamorphosis, a conical or cylindrical
mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
is placed on the distorted drawing or painting to reveal an undistorted image. The deformed picture relies on laws regarding angles of incidence of reflection. The length of the flat drawing's curves are reduced when viewed in a curved mirror, such that the distortions resolve into a recognizable picture. Unlike perspective anamorphosis, catoptric images can be viewed from many angles. The technique was originally developed in China during the
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, and the first European manual on mirror anamorphosis was published around 1630 by the mathematician Vaulezard. ''Channel anamorphosis'' or ''
tabula scalata Tabula scalata are pictures with two images divided into strips on different sides of a corrugated carrier. Each image can be viewed correctly from a certain angle. Most tabula scalata have the images in vertical lines so the picture seems to cha ...
'' has a different images on each side of a corrugated carrier. A straight frontal view shows an unclear mix of the images, while each image can be viewed correctly from a certain angle.


History


Prehistory

The Stone Age
cave paintings In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are mor ...
at
Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...
may make use of anamorphic technique, because the oblique angles of the cave would otherwise result in distorted figures from a viewer's perspective. The ancient historians
Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
and
Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to p ...
both record a sculpture competition between Alcamenes and
Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias'';  480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...
to create an image of
Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
. Alcamenes' sculpture was beautiful, while Phidias' had grotesque proportions. Yet once both had been mounted on pillars, the decelerated perspective made Phidias' Minerva beautiful and Alcamenes' ugly.


Renaissance

Artists' experimentation with optics and perspective during the Renaissance advanced anamorphic technique, at a time when science and religious thought were equally important to its growth in Europe. ''Leonardo's Eye'' by
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
, included in the ''
Codex Atlanticus The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was us ...
'' (1483-1518), is the earliest known example. He later completed several large-scale anamorphic commissions for the King of France.
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola ( , , ; 1 October 15077 July 1573), often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Churc ...
credited
Tommaso Laureti Tommaso Laureti, often called Tommaso Laureti Siciliano (c. 1530 — 22 September 1602), was an Italian painter from Sicily who trained in the atelier of the aged Sebastiano del Piombo and worked in Bologna. From 1582, he worked for papal patrons ...
as the originator of a perspectival anamorphic technique in one of the earliest written descriptions in ''The Two Rules of Practical Perspective'', compiled between 1530 and 1540 but not published until 1583. Many other descriptions and examples were created before 1583 without access to Vignola's work. ''
The Ambassadors ''The Ambassadors'' is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the ''North American Review'' (NAR). The novel is a dark comedy which follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe to bring the son o ...
'' (c. 1533) by
Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere;  – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
is known for the prominent gray diagonal slash across the bottom of the frame which, when viewed from an acute angle, resolves into the image of a
human skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...
. It has been hypothesized that the painting, regarded as a ''
vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-kn ...
'' – a meditation on the transience of life including the skull as a ''
memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...
Jaques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
noted in 'Of the Gaze as ''Objet Petit a (1973) that the use of anamorphism, particularly in this painting, is one of the few methods for making viewers aware of their gaze.


17th century

By the 17th century, a revival of fantastical anamorphic imagery occurred. Magical and religious connotations were largely abandoned, and the images were understood as a scientific curiosity. Two major works on perspective were published: ''Perspective'' (1612) by
Salomon de Caus Salomon de Caus (1576, Dieppe – 1626, Paris) was a French Huguenot engineer, once (falsely) credited with the development of the steam engine. Biography Caus was the elder brother of Isaac de Caus. Being a Huguenot, Caus spent his life moving a ...
, and ''Curious Perspective'' (1638) by Jean-Francois Niceron. Each contained extensive scientific and practical information on anamorphic imagery. In Niceron's work, three types of large-scale anamorphism are explained: 'optical' (looking horizontally); 'anoptric' (looking upwards); and 'catoptric' (looking down i.e. from a mezzanine). A conical perspective is also described. Towards the end of the century, Charles Ozanam's ''Mathematical Recreations'' widely popularized the techniques for the creation of anamorphic images. Between 1669 and 1685, both perspective and mirror anamorphosis were introduced in China by the Jesuits to the
Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...
and monks at the Peking Mission. However, Chinese production of anamorphic images were already occurring on a large scale during the late
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
. The images were mostly created freehand, unlike the grid system used in the west. As Chinese anamorphoses primarily focused on erotic themes, Jesuit influence is unlikely. It is considered likely that Chinese catoptric techniques, which are technically unrelated to geometric anamorphosis, influenced European mirror anamorphosis, and not the other way around.
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
''
trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' murals often used anamorphism to combine actual architectural elements with illusory painted elements to create a seamless effect when viewed from a specific location. The dome and vault of the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted by
Andrea Pozzo Andrea Pozzo (; Latinized version: ''Andreas Puteus''; 30 November 1642 – 31 August 1709) was an Italian Jesuit brother, Baroque painter, architect, decorator, stage designer, and art theoretician. Pozzo was best known for his grandiose fresc ...
, represented the pinnacle of illusion. Due to neighboring monks complaining about blocked light, Pozzo was commissioned to paint the ceiling to look like the inside of a dome, instead of building a real dome. As the ceiling is flat, there is only one spot where the illusion is perfect and a dome looks undistorted. Anamorphosis could be used to conceal images for privacy or personal safety, and many secret portraits were created of deposed royalty. A well-known anamorphic portrait of the English
King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...
was completed in 1546, only visible when viewed through a hole in the frame. It was later hung at
Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...
, and may have influenced Shakespeare during the writing of ''
Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
''. Many anamorphic portraits of King Charles I were created and shared following his 1649 execution. A secret mirror anamorphosis portrait of
Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
, held at the
West Highland Museum The West Highland Museum ( gd, Taigh-tasgaidh na Gàidhealtachd an Iar) tells the story of the Scottish Highlands and the Islands. It aims to cover every aspect of West Highland history, including that of Fort William, where it is located in a ...
, can only be recognized when a polished cylinder is placed in the correct position. To possess such an image would have been seen as treason in the aftermath of the 1746
Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince Wi ...
. The ''memento mori'' theme continued into this period, such as in an ''Anamorphic Painting of Adam and Eve'', on display at the
Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...
in
Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
. This painting by an unknown Italian artist of the 17th or early 18th century portrays the Biblical couple, along with a large unidentified male face at the top, and a large human skull at the bottom. The images are distorted when viewed straight on, and can only be seen by peeking through one of two holes at each end of the surrounding frame. The painting includes a Latin religious inscription adapted from John 14:6, ending with the words ''memento mori''.


18th and 19th century

The eighteenth century saw anamorphism completely enter the realm of entertainment and diversion, as well as the widest dissemination of the technique. By the 19th century, a revival of interest in anamorphism for architectural illusion occurred, as well as a fashion for classical themes. Reprints of Renaissance-era engravings became popular, as did political, obscene and popular subjects.
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
's short story "
Ligeia "Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Wor ...
" describes a room filled with "simple monstrosities" that resolve in to "an endless succession of ... ghastly forms" as the narrator walks through the room. This mass popularization was to later have effect on the
Surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
.


20th century

By the twentieth century, some artists wanted to renew the technique of anamorphosis for aesthetic and conceptual effect. During the First World War, Arthur Mole, an American commercial photographer, used anamorphic techniques to create patriotic images from massive assembled groups of soldiers and reservists. When seen from a tower at their base, the gathered people resolved into recognizable pictures.
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
was interested in anamorphosis. His last work '' Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas'' (1946–66) used mild anamorphosis to force viewers into the position of peep-hole voyeurs in order to see a nude, anonymous human body.
Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
artist
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
used extreme
foreshortening Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...
and anamorphism in his paintings and works. A
glass floor Glass floors are made with transparent glass when it is useful to view something from above or below; whereas translucent glass is used when there is no need to view through. In either case, toughened glass is usually chosen, for its durability ...
installed in a room next to his studio enabled radical perspective studies from above and below. The Dalí Theatre and Museum features a three-dimensional anamorphic living-room installation; the
Mae West Lips Sofa The ''Mae West Lips Sofa'' is a surrealist sculpture in the form of a sofa by Salvador Dalí. The light red, sized seating furniture made of polyurethane foam coated with a red polidur coating was shaped in 1972 after the lips of actress Mae We ...
that looks like the face of the film star when seen from a certain viewpoint. Interestingly, Lacan also compared Holbein's 16th-century painting to Dali's imagery, rather than the other way around.


Impossible objects

In the twentieth century, artists began to play with perspective by drawing "impossible objects". These objects included stairs that always ascend, or cubes where the back meets the front. Such works were popularized by the artist
M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...
and the mathematician
Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fello ...
. Although referred to as "impossible objects", such objects as the
Necker Cube The Necker cube is an optical illusion that was first published as a Rhomboid in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker. It is a simple wire-frame, two dimensional drawing of a cube with no visual cues as to its orientation, so it c ...
and the
Penrose triangle The Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, the impossible tribar, or the impossible triangle, is a triangular impossible object, an optical illusion consisting of an object which can be depicted in a perspective drawing, but cannot e ...
can be sculpted in 3-D by using anamorphic illusion. When viewed at a certain angle, such sculptures appear as the so-called impossible objects.


Ames rooms

The
Ames room An Ames room is a distorted room that creates an optical illusion. Likely influenced by the writings of Hermann Helmholtz, it was invented by American scientist Adelbert Ames Jr. in 1946, and constructed in the following year. Usage and effect ...
was invented by American scientist
Adelbert Ames Jr. Adelbert Ames Jr. (August 19, 1880 – July 3, 1955) was an American scientist who made contributions to physics, physiology, ophthalmology, psychology, and philosophy. He pioneered the study of physiological optics at Dartmouth College, serving ...
in 1946. When viewed through a peephole, the room appears to have normal perspective. However, all other viewpoints reveal that the room is constructed of irregular trapezoids. Similar effects had been achieved during the Renaissance through the use of "accelerated perspective" in stage design. These included productions by Scamozzi (1588-9), Furtenbach (1625), Sabbattini (1637) and Troili (1672). One of the most interesting effects of an Ames room is that the distorted perspective can make people and objects look much bigger or smaller than they really are. For this reason, Ames rooms are widely used in cinema for practical special effects. A well-known example is the homes in the Shire from the
Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
and
The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
films. Through the use of
forced perspective Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation ...
, the character of Gandalf appeared much larger than the characters of Frodo and Bilbo, without the use of digital effects.


Practical uses

Cinemascope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
,
Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during ...
,
Technirama __NOTOC__ Technirama is a screen process that has been used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid-1960s. The process was invented by Technicolor and is an anamo ...
, and other
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
formats use anamorphosis to project a wider image from a narrower film frame. The
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...
company uses even more extreme anamorphic transformations to project moving images from a flat film frame onto the inside of a hemispheric dome, in its "Omnimax" or "IMAX Dome" process. The technique of anamorphic projection can be seen quite commonly on text written at a very flat angle on roadways, such as "Bus Lane" or "Children Crossing", to make it easily read by drivers who otherwise would have difficulty reading obliquely as the vehicle approaches the text; when the vehicle is nearly above the text, its true abnormally elongated shape can be seen. Similarly, in many sporting stadiums, especially in
Rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, it is used to promote company brands which are painted onto the playing surface; from the television camera angle, the writing appear as signs standing vertically within the field of play. Much writing on shop windows is in principle anamorphic, as it was written mirror-reversed on the inside of the window glass. File:Anamorphose cinemascope desert meme sens-2011-01-02.jpg, Comparison between the "normal" picture and the anamorphic picture on a 35 mm film in Cinemascope format File:Layby, A3 south of Petersfield - geograph.org.uk - 705594.jpg,
Road surface marking Road surface marking is any kind of device or material that is used on a road surface in order to convey official information; they are commonly placed with road marking machines (also referred to as road marking equipment or pavement marking eq ...
warning text is predistorted for oblique viewing by motorists File:Ambulance with wig-wag.jpg, Mirror anamorphosis on the lower front of an
ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
, so the writing appears right way round in rear view mirrors of vehicles ahead of it in traffic File:Anamorphic writing on helmets.jpg, Anamorphic writing on riot helmets. Despite being written on a curved sloping surface the onlooker sees it horizontally and undistorted.


In the work of contemporary artists

While not as widespread in contemporary art, anamorphosis as a technique has been used by contemporary artists in painting, photography,
printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
, sculpture, film and video, digital art and games,
holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, i ...
,
street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...
and
installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
. The latter two art forms are largely practised in public areas such as parks, city centres and transit stations. In 1975 a major exhibition was held focusing exclusively on anamorphic imagery: ''Anamorphoses: Games of Perception and Illusion in Art''. The artist Jan Beutener created ''The Room'', a major new installation specifically for the exhibit.


Sculpture and installation

Since the mid-20th century, many artists have made use of anamorphosis in public artworks. American land art pioneer
Michael Heizer Michael Heizer (born 1944) is an American land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures. Working largely outside the confines of the traditional art spaces of galleries and museums, Heizer has redefined sculpture in terms ...
's ''Complex One'' (1972-1974), a massive earth and concrete structure in the
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
desert, creates a rectangular frame for a
mastaba A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...
when viewed from a specific location. Inspired by
Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
and other ancient monumental sites, it is part of the larger work ''City'', an enormous sculpture running a mile and a half long. The entire work will not be completed until 2020.
Shigeo Fukuda was a sculptor, medallist, graphic artist and poster designer who created optical illusions. His art pieces usually portray deception, such as ''Lunch With a Helmet On'', a sculpture created entirely from forks, knives, and spoons, that cas ...
, a Japanese artist and designer globally renowned for his satirical posters on anti-war and environmental advocacy, created posters and sculptures making use of both types of anamorphosis in the 1970s and 1980s. He also wrote multiple books on the topic of optical illusions.
Felice Varini Felice Varini (born in Locarno in 1952) is a Paris-based, Swiss artist who was nominated for the 2000/2001 Marcel Duchamp Prize. Mostly known for his geometric perspective-localized paintings in rooms and other spaces, using projector-stencil tec ...
's 2014 work ''Three Ellipses for Three Locks'' in
Hasselt, Belgium Hasselt (, , ; la, Hasseletum, Hasselatum) is a Belgian city and municipality, and capital and largest city of the province of Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is known for its former branding as "the city of taste", as well as its ...
is an image of three loops that are made up of segments painted on to over 100 buildings. It is only visible from a specific vantage point over the city. French artists that have created recent anamorphic installations include François Abélanet and
Jean-Max Albert Jean-Max Albert (born 1942) is a French painter, sculptor, writer, and musician. He has published theory, books on artists, and a collection of poems, plays and novels inspired by quantum physics. He perpetuated experiments initiated by Paul Klee ...
.
Markus Raetz Markus Raetz (6 June 1941 – 14 April 2020) was a Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator. Life and work Born in Bern and raised in Büren an der Aare near Bern, Raetz obtained a teacher's education and taught primary school until 1963, when ...
's ''Kopf'' is a large scale public installation that reveals the form of a person's head in profile when viewed from a specific vantage-point. It was installed in a public park in
Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. While anamorphic images were not his exclusive area of focus, the American artist
Jonathan Borofsky Jonathan Borofsky (born December 24, 1942) is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine. Early life and education Borofsky was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mel ...
created installations in the 1980s using anamorphic techniques, exhibiting at institutions such as the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
.
Jonty Hurwitz Jonty Hurwitz (born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg) is a British South African artist, engineer and entrepreneur. Hurwitz creates scientifically inspired artworks and anamorphic sculptures. He is recognised for the smallest human form ever ...
pioneered the use of a mathematical technique to create
catoptric Catoptrics (from grc-gre, κατοπτρικός ''katoptrikós'', "specular", from grc-gre, κάτοπτρον ''katoptron'' "mirror") deals with the phenomena of reflected light and image-forming optical systems using mirrors. A catoptric s ...
sculptures that resolve in a cylinder. In 2013 he produced a public work for the
Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...
's River Room.


Drawing and painting

The Swedish artist Hans Hamngren produced and exhibited many examples of mirror anamorphosis in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sara Willet Sara may refer to: Arts, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui * ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda * ''Sara'' (2010 film), 2010 Sri Lankan Sinhal ...
's paintings focus on anamorphic images. Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave also widely uses anamorphosis in her paintings, whereby her original drawings or paintings are stretched out and revert to a 'normal' dimension once the drawing or painting is pleated to its final form.


Photography

Beginning in 1967, Dutch artist
Jan Dibbets Jan Dibbets (born 9 May 1941, in Weert) is an Amsterdam-based Dutch conceptual artist. His work is influenced by mathematics and works mainly with photography. Life and career In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he started as an art teacher at the ...
based an entire series of photographic work titled ''Perspective Corrections'' on the distortion of reality through perspective anamorphosis. This involved the incorporation of land art into his work, where areas dug out of the Earth formed squares from specific perspectives.


Street art

Anamorphic effects are popular in street art, sometimes called "Slant Art" when accomplished on sidewalks. Examples are the
sidewalk chalk Sidewalk chalk is typically large and thick sticks of chalk (calcium sulfate, gypsum, rather than calcium carbonate, rock chalk) that come in multiple colors and are mostly used for drawing on pavement or concrete sidewalks, frequently four sq ...
drawings of
Kurt Wenner Kurt Wenner is an American artist, he is known for his 3D pavement art shown internationally. Early life and education Wenner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1958, but grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He attended Rhode Island School of ...
and
Julian Beever Julian Beever (born c. 1959) is a British sidewalk chalk artist who has been creating ''trompe-l'œil'' chalk drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. He uses a projection technique called anamorphosis to create the illusion of three ...
, where the chalked image, the pavement, and the architectural surroundings all become part of an illusion. Art of this style can be produced by taking a photograph of an object or setting at a sharp oblique angle, then putting a grid over the photograph. Another elongated grid is placed on the sidewalk based on a specific perspective, and visual elements of one are transcribed into the other, one grid square at a time. In 2016, the street artist JR completed a massive temporary anamorphic illusion over the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
's pyramid, making the modern structure disappear and the original building appear as though it was still in the 17th century.


Gallery

File:Hurwitz Singularity, perspective anamorphic sculpture by Jonty Hurwitz.jpg, ''Hurwitz Singularity'', anamorphic sculpture using perspective File:Anamorphic frog sculpture by Jonty Hurwitz.jpeg, Anamorphic frog sculpture by
Jonty Hurwitz Jonty Hurwitz (born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg) is a British South African artist, engineer and entrepreneur. Hurwitz creates scientifically inspired artworks and anamorphic sculptures. He is recognised for the smallest human form ever ...
File:Vera-Bugatti-Anamorphic-portrait-mirror.jpg, Vera Bugatti: cylindrical mirror anamorphosis with portrait File:Anamorphosis.jpg, Three views of a conical anamorphosis by Dimitri Parant File:Anamorphoses-prisme 02.JPG, Pyramidal anamorphosis File:Anamorphose-miroir 01.JPG, Cylindrical anamorphosis File:Reflet anamorphose 1.jpg,
Jean-Max Albert Jean-Max Albert (born 1942) is a French painter, sculptor, writer, and musician. He has published theory, books on artists, and a collection of poems, plays and novels inspired by quantum physics. He perpetuated experiments initiated by Paul Klee ...
, ''Reflet anamorphose'', Bronze, Parc de la Villette (1985)


Popular culture

Since the 18th century, anamorphosis has been a widespread art form in popular culture. It has been used for children's toys, album art, advertising, videogames and movies, among other things. In the 1970s, albums for musicians
Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...
and
Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...
featured anamorphic album art. The 2009
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
'' Batman: Arkham Asylum'' has a series of riddles posed by the classic
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
antagonist
The Riddler The Riddler (Edward Nigma, later Edward Nygma or Edward Nashton) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, and debuted in ''Detective Comics'' #140 in O ...
, the solution of which is based on perspective anamorphosis. In 2013,
Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
released a commercial which incorporated a series of illusions based on anamorphosis. Tourists attractions employing large-scale illusory art allowing visitors to photograph themselves in fantastic scenes have opened in several Asian countries, such as the Trickeye Museum and
Hong Kong 3D Museum Hong Kong 3D Museum () is a Private museum, privately owned art museum on Granville Road, Hong Kong. Specializing in ''trompe-l'œil,'' it opened on 7 July 2014. It features art created by local artists that focuses on local culture and views o ...
.


See also

*
Adelbert Ames Jr. Adelbert Ames Jr. (August 19, 1880 – July 3, 1955) was an American scientist who made contributions to physics, physiology, ophthalmology, psychology, and philosophy. He pioneered the study of physiological optics at Dartmouth College, serving ...
Ames Demonstrations *
Anamorphic format Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
, a widescreen film technique * Anamorphic widescreen, a widescreen video encoding concept * Arthur Mole *
Image warping Image warping is the process of digitally manipulating an image such that any shapes portrayed in the image have been significantly distorted. Warping may be used for correcting image distortion as well as for creative purposes (e.g., morphingBei ...
* ''Mad'' Fold-in *
Perspective control Perspective control is a procedure for composing or editing photographs to better conform with the commonly accepted distortions in constructed perspective. The control would: * make all lines that are vertical in reality vertical in the image. ...
*
Panomorph The term panomorph derives from the Greek words ''pan'' meaning all, ''horama'' meaning view, and ''morph'' meaning form. A panomorph lens is a particular type of wide-angle lens specifically designed to improve optical performances in predefined z ...


Artists

*
Jonty Hurwitz Jonty Hurwitz (born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg) is a British South African artist, engineer and entrepreneur. Hurwitz creates scientifically inspired artworks and anamorphic sculptures. He is recognised for the smallest human form ever ...
*
Jean-Max Albert Jean-Max Albert (born 1942) is a French painter, sculptor, writer, and musician. He has published theory, books on artists, and a collection of poems, plays and novels inspired by quantum physics. He perpetuated experiments initiated by Paul Klee ...
*
Julian Beever Julian Beever (born c. 1959) is a British sidewalk chalk artist who has been creating ''trompe-l'œil'' chalk drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. He uses a projection technique called anamorphosis to create the illusion of three ...
*
Peter Dazeley Peter Dazeley known as Dazeley, is a British photographer living and working in London, known for fine art, advertising, anamorphic and nude photography, as well as flower photography. Biography Dazeley was born in West Kensington, London, ...
* Joe Hill *
Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere;  – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
* Kelly Houle * Patrick Hughes *
William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by ...
*
Leon Keer Leon Keer (born 1980) is a Dutch pop-surrealist artist. He has created work on canvas and (''3D'') artwork on the streets across the world. Leon Keer is a leading artist in anamorphic street art. His art has been showcased in Europe, the United ...
* René Luckhardt * Edgar Müller *
Matthew Ngui Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
*
István Orosz István Orosz (born 24 October 1951) is a Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director. He is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphos ...
*
Andrea Pozzo Andrea Pozzo (; Latinized version: ''Andreas Puteus''; 30 November 1642 – 31 August 1709) was an Italian Jesuit brother, Baroque painter, architect, decorator, stage designer, and art theoretician. Pozzo was best known for his grandiose fresc ...
* Eduardo Relero *
Georges Rousse Georges Rousse (born July 28, 1947) is a French photographer, painter, and installation artist. He has been taking photos since receiving his first camera at the age of nine, but he never formally attended art school to pursue photography. Instead ...
*
Ed Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...
*
Tracy Lee Stum Tracy Lee Stum is an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings or chalk drawings. She at one point held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Chalk Painting by an Individual. Stum taught herself to draw as a child, and later ...
*
Kurt Wenner Kurt Wenner is an American artist, he is known for his 3D pavement art shown internationally. Early life and education Wenner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1958, but grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He attended Rhode Island School of ...


References


Bibliography

* Andersen, Kirsti (1996) "The mathematical treatment of anamorphoses from Piero della Francesca to Niceron", pp 3 to 28 in ''History of Mathematics'', J.W. Dauben, M. Folkerts, E. Knobloch & H. Wussing editors, . * Baltrušaitis, Jurgis (1976) "Anamorphic Art". Trans. W.J. Strachn. Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York. Standard Book Number: 8109-0662-7. Library of Congress: 77-73789 * Baltrušaitis, Jurgis (1984) Anamorphoses ou Thaumaturgus opticus. Flammarion, Paris. * Behrens, R.R. (2009a). "Adelbert Ames II" entry in Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. Dysart IA: Bobolink Books, pp. 25–26. . * Behrens, R.R. (2009b). "Ames Demonstrations in Perception" in E. Bruce Goldstein, ed., Encyclopedia of Perception. Sage Publications, pp. 41–44. . * Cole, Alison: Perspective (1992) Dorling Kindersley, London. * Damisch, Hubert: L'Origine de la perspective (1987) Flammarion, Paris. * De Rosa, Agostino; D'Acunto, Giuseppe (2002) La Vertigine dello Sguardo. Tre saggi sulla rappresentazione anamorfica (The Vertigo of Sight. Three Essays on the Anamorphic Representation). Cafoscarina Publishing, Venice. * De Rosa, Agostino (Ed), Jean François Nicéron (2012) Prospettiva, catottrica e magia artificiale (Jean François Nicéron. Perspective, catoptric and artificial magic), 2 Vols. with critical editions and translations of J. F. Nicéron's La Perspective curieuse and Thaumaturgus opticus. Marsilio, Venezia. * Du Breuil, La Pere (1649) La Perspective pratique. Paris. * Fischer, Sören (2016) "Una vista amirabile": Remarks on the Illusionary Interplay Between Real and Painted Windows in 16th Century Italy, in The Most Noble of the Senses: Anamorphosis, Trompe-L'Oeil, and Other Optical Illusions in Early Modern Art, ed. by Lilian Zirpolo, Ramsey, New Jersey, , pp. 1–28. * Foister, Susan, Roz Ashok, Wyld Martin. Holbein's Ambassadors. National Gallery Publications, London. * Haddock, Nickolas (2013) "Medievalism and Anamorphosis: Curious Perspectives on the Middle Ages," in
Medievalism Now
', ed. E.L. Risden, Karl Fugelso, and Richard Utz (special issue of ''The Year's Work in Medievalism'', 28). * Houle, Kelly (2003) Portrait of Escher: Behind the Mirror. M.C. Escher's Legacy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. * Kircher, Athanasius (1646) Ars Magna lucis et umbrae in decem Libros digesta. Rome. * Lanners, Edi: Illusionen. VerlagC.J.Bucher GmbH, München und Luzern, 1973. * Leemann, Fred: Anamorphosen. DuMont Buchverlag, Köln, 1975. * Leemann, Fred: Hidden Images. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1976. * Maignan, Emmanuel (1648) Perspectiva horaria, sive de Horographia gnomonica.... Rome. * Mastai, M. L. d'Otrange (1975) Illusion in Art. Abaris Books, New York. * Niceron, Jean-Francois (1638) La Perspective curieuse ou magie artificelle des effets merveilleux. Paris. * Niceron, Jean-Francois (1646) Thaumaturgus opticus, seu Admiranda optices per radium directum, catoptrices per radium reflectum. Paris. * North, John (2002) The Ambassadors' Secret. Hamblendon and London, London. * István, Orosz (2000) Artistic Expression of Mirror, Reflection and Perspective. Symmetry. :::– (2002) Portland Press, London. * István, Orosz (2003) The Mirrors of the Master. Escher Legacy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. * Quay, Stephen and Timothy (1991) De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis (film) * Shickman, Allan: "Turning Pictures" in Shakespeare's England. University of N. Iowa, Cedar Falls Ia. Art Bulletin LIX/March 1, 1977. * Sakane, Itsuo: A Museum of Fun (The Expanding Perceptual World) The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, 1979 (Part I.) 1984 (Part II.) * Schott, Gaspar (1657) Magia universalis naturae et artis. Würzburg. * Stillwell, John (1989) ''Mathematics and Its History'', §7.2 Anamorphosis, pp 81,2, Springer . * The Arcimboldo Effect (1987) (exhibition catalogue -
Palazzo Grassi Palazzo Grassi (also known as the Palazzo Grassi-Stucky) is a building in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice (Italy), between the Palazzo Moro Lin and the campo San Samuele. History First owners During the 16th cen ...
, Velence) Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Bompiani, Milan.


External links


Phillip Kent: Art of Anamorphosis
* ttps://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16197-anamorphic-art/ Anamorphic art at New Scientistbr>Leon Keer: Anamorphose Art
{{Authority control Artistic techniques Composition in visual art Mathematics and art Optical toys Perspective projection